Current AI techniques utilize 2.5 to 3 billion sperm per dose, yet there are still many other factors that influence fertility with AI. Yet despite the numerous measures for semen quality, sperm concentration is still the most commonly performed test. Most studies indicate that 2 billion sperm per dose will not limit productivity but will reduce performance. Assessment of sperm concentrations is done by a cell-counting chamber and analysis by spectrophotometers. Both age and collection frequency seems to be the biggest factors when addressing sperm concentration variation. Cell-counting chambers are good because they allow for visual assessment of sperm. Despite it being a time consuming method, it is low cost and fairly accurate. Errors occur typically with sub-sampling, pipetting, filling the counting chamber, dilution of the samples, and errors in counting. Optical density is the most common and practical method used for commercial semen production. Spectrophotometers are used because of their speed and ease of use. It measures the amount of light transmitted through a sample, which is dependent on the number of sperm. Many photometers have predetermined curves that calculate the concentration or provide a chart for conversion of the reading to sperm\/mL. Errors from this method can result from improper sampling, pipette error, improper sample holder, incorrect diluent, using the machine wrong, incorrect standard curve, and reading out of the range of the photometer accuracy. Knowledge of the equipment accuracy range and the concentration of the ejaculate could allow a single dilution to be performed that would provide optimal readings within the limits of the spectrophotometer for a wide range of ejaculates. Determining the range of semen concentrations range that will be encountered in the lab could help choose the labs standard dilution rate and give warning when expected values are out of the expected range and reading accuracy for the equipment. It appears that average concentrations today are consistently higher compared to earlier reports. This could be due to lower collection frequency, selection for testes size, greater maturity age, and better health\/nutrition\/housing. It could be beneficial to produce a grid for ejaculate volumes and concentrations for certain ages of boars. Standard curves should be generated for the optimal reading range of the equipment and investigations should occur when readings fall out of this range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Current AI techniques utilize 2.5 to 3 billion sperm per dose, yet there are still many other factors that influence fertility with AI. Yet despite the numerous measures for semen quality, sperm concentration is still the most commonly performed test. Most studies indicate that 2 billion sperm per dose will not limit productivity but will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[930],"tags":[19102,8882,13816,19216,49,5162,23964,785,2235,6784,190,19644,4663,20007,111,6492,47,20792,5381,79,15763,7545,3465,63,24993,22808,16262,17743,27282,95,5269,3753,1533,16679,20911,4874,1579,6053,1055],"class_list":["post-3856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-production","tag-address","tag-al","tag-ass","tag-assess","tag-assessment","tag-boar","tag-boar-fertility","tag-boars","tag-conversion","tag-cos","tag-cost","tag-dd","tag-don","tag-gh","tag-health","tag-help","tag-housing","tag-influence","tag-light","tag-nutrition","tag-optical-density-of-swine-sperm","tag-optimal","tag-pea","tag-performance","tag-photo","tag-pic","tag-pl","tag-prod","tag-production","tag-quality","tag-report","tag-semen","tag-size","tag-smit","tag-t","tag-tan","tag-test","tag-use","tag-variation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}